Electronic forms are commonly used to collect information. Electronic forms may be used locally or over a communication network, such as an intranet or the Internet. For electronic forms used locally, a user's computer locally accesses view information and data information about an electronic form. With this view information, the user's computer may enable the user to view and enter data into the electronic form. With this data information, the user's computer may enable data actions for the electronic form, like validating data entered into a field, adding data from multiple fields and populating the result into another field, and the like.
For electronic forms used with a network, a user's computer communicates with a network computer to enable use of the electronic form. In so doing, often the user's network browser receives view information but not data information from the network computer. This view information may be used by the user's network browser to permit the user to view and enter information into the electronic form.
To enable data actions for the electronic form, the user's network browser often needs to communicate with the network computer for each data action. A user may, for instance, enter a price for a product in one data-entry field of a network form and a quantity of these products into another data-entry field. A data action may calculate a total price by multiplying the product's price by its quantity. To present this total price in the form, often the user's network browser sends the price and the quantity to the network computer and waits for the network computer to calculate the total, create new view information for the entire form but now including this total, and send it to the network browser. The network browser may then present the total to the user based on this new view information.
Communicating with the network computer, however, may slow the user's network browser enough to negatively affect the user's editing experience. In some cases, the network computer may take an appreciable amount of time to receive the request from the browser, perform the data action, and send new view information to the browser. Also, communicating with the network computer may be slow because of the network or how the browser communicates with it (e.g., with a dial-up modem), thereby potentially affecting a user's editing experience.
In addition, having the network computer perform data actions expends some of the network computer's resources. Expending these resources may slow or inhibit the network computer's ability to service other users.
Accordingly, this invention arose out of concerns associated with performing data actions for network forms.